Review: The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us [Unabridged]

The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us [Unabridged] by Christopher Chabris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It now seems quaint the invisible gorilla video, but this book helps to make plain how important and revealing that was, and the site holding all the videos is a great asset to the book. In the spirit of You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself, this book humbles the reader with the unreliability of our senses and brains. There are a lot of enlightening historical tidbits here I didn't know, like that JamesVicary's experiment using subliminal messages in a movie theatre to sell popcorn and Coke was a fraud, muddying the waters and adding fasle support for our inflated sense of attentiveness.

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Review: Dr. Seuss's ABC

Dr. Seuss's ABC by Dr. Seuss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Education through entertainment for children with a quick, quirky poem facing a delightful Seuss fantasy drawing. I can't think of a better way to review the alphabet with a child, and look forward to the questions and comments it may spur.

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Review: The Ernie and Bert Book

The Ernie and Bert Book by Joe Mathieu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I value the ability to laugh at and invent the absurd, both in myself and others. This shaggy dog story is Ernie's extensive narration of apparently irrelevant rearrangements he has made that spiral out into cartoonish absurdity like And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street. This terminates with the anticlimactic punchline of why Bert has a pot on his head on the cover. Good stuff to hopefully spark a love for the absurd in a young reader.

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Review: The Story of Philosophy

The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There may be no better popularizer of philosophy than Durant. Everyone interested in getting a footing un understand the history and goals of philosophy should read at least one Durant title, and this may be a good one. It even includes a glossary of basic terms. Durant's self-effacing introduction and helpful, pellucid footnotes ease the reader into the rugged topography of idealism, materialism, etc. This is a rather brisk overview, Leibniz is a notable exclusion, and the modern era American philosophers gets an especially brisk, cursory examination.

Naturally, this starts with the Greeks: Plato and then Aristotle. A huge leap over the Scholastics leads us to Francis Bacon and the persecuted, defamed Spinoza who got Western civilization back on track with original thinking and the scientific method. Voltaire represents the French Enlightenment and Immanuel Kant German idealism. Arthur Schopenhauer gets the whole chapter he deserves, but I did not expect to see the same treatment for Herbert Spencer.

Breathlessly, contemporary European philosophy is represented by Henri Bergson, Bendetto Croce, and Bertrand Russell when I think it would have been better to focus only on Russell who represents so much in his long and varied career. Similarly, contemporary American philosophy comes from George Santayana, John Dewey, and William James. For the space given I would have had more of James, but this choice is less clear to me.

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Review: 24 Hours in a Game Reserve

24 Hours in a Game Reserve by Barrie Watts
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

YA overview of life in an African game reserve - lot of pictures. Right there in the early morning life is bloody in tooth and claw with what eats what. Lots of bird and mammal species, beautiful photography, some spread over two pages. A good read for animal-loving youth and entertaining and educational for this adult.

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Review: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this before, but after Hitchens' passing, I picked up this audiobook since it is narrated by Hitch, and this a chance to hear his voice again. His radical, anti-theistic atheism is so overt I don't think he is going to win any converts here, but for laughing at those god-hugger, there is a lot of material here. On this second read, some things that stood out to me is this time:

1) the quirky roots of Mormonism (I always like that story) with Joseph Smith's wife not abiding the BS and challenging a re-revealing of identical text

2) The illiterate Muhammad and the fetishistic fixation as unalterable a vowel-less antique Koran

and,

3) Maybe Jesus was a historical personage, as this explains the tortured contradiction of Herod, Cyrenius the governor (Luke 2:2), and the census to all point to a non-date but bring in biblical prophecy and explain both Nazareth and Bethlehem.

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Review: The Founding Fathers

The Founding Fathers by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a collection of four titles: George Washington by James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn, John Adams: The American Presidents Series: The 2nd President, 1797-1801, Thomas Jefferson: The American Presidents Series: The 3rd President, 1801-1809, and James Madison by Gary Wills.

James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States, serving between 1817 and 1825. Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States and it seems a missed opportunity to not include him, considering the title, intent, and repeated introduction by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. to each book.

I have read other biographies of all the subjects as well as books on the era, of course. Each gives me a different view and impression. This time, I felt George Washington came across as quietly elitist and entitled, one that "protests too much" on the burden of leadership - thought still pretty noble and deserving compared to other presidents. John Adams seems always to strike me as unfortunately superficial, but more here I felt the divisiveness of armed bands and secessionist pronouncements of loosely confederated states during this era. Thomas Jefferson, so intelligent and industrious, continues to disappoint as I read more of him backing down from opportunities to lead or be decisive. I feel he was a theorist, even visionary, who could not really put into practice and he seemed to have the most glaring hypocrisy with regard to slavery.

James Madison was the only I really had the dimmest opinion of, and now I feel the oft-forgotten War of 1812 was the more pointless and unfortunate and with Madison's faults there and disreputable approaches to altering the record seems to have a much better view in history than he deserves.

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Review: How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else

How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else by Michael Gates Gill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a delightful quick read of a memoir that if not one of the elusive, second acts in American life was a second career of redemption and reevaluation. The author's privileged Yale education and Skull & Bones connections got him a lucrative and successful advertising career that had among its high points the phrase "The Marines are looking for a few good men" for DoD recruiting. After being terminated and stumbling into a role as barista, the triumphant transformation is as heart-warming as it is predictable, like a made-for-TV movie. (The book has been optioned by Tom Hanks for a film;[2] filmmaker Gus Van Sant has also been in talks to direct.) As a reader, what I really enjoyed was the flashback scenes giving context to the episodes where Gill recalled meetings with famous writers, made possible since Gill is the son of famed The New Yorker writer Brendan Gill. This included the truth behind a forehead scar from Ernest 'Papa' Hemingway himself, a curmudgeonly philandering James Thurber, and a vindictive office boy phase for Truman Capote. There is more interesting stuff about his daughter Elizabeth 'Bis' Gill who made Goldfish Memory (mistakenly called "Goldfish Memories" here) but what most impressed other Starbucks "Partners" was that she worked on a movie with rapper 50 Cent in Ireland (maybe Get Rich or Die Tryin').

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Review: Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future

Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future by Stephen Kinzer
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

At first, I felt this book was too wide in scope and shoe-horning together the diverse history of United States relations with Turkey and Iran. However, the author brings together the post-Ottoman nations and contrasts well with other regional players: Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Palestine. The book really traces from post-WW I to today this history of American and Western involvement in the region and the author's suggestions for where it should go from here.

Beginning with Persia, now Iran, American seemed to find a natural ally and partner so closely aligned that American Howard Baskerville (1885–1909) has a bust at the museum of the Constitution House of Tabriz. This American teacher in the Presbyterian mission school in Tabriz, Iran, died fighting for Iranian democracy and was lauded as a hero by Iran. William Morgan Shuster (1877-1960), American lawyer, civil servant, and publisher, became the treasurer-general of Persia by appointment of the Iranian parliament, or Majles, from May to December 1911. The, post-WWII, these rosy relations soured when, in 1951, Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected as the prime minister. He became enormously popular in Iran, after he nationalized Iran's petroleum industry and oil reserves. He was deposed in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, an Anglo-American covert operation that marked the first time the US had overthrown a foreign government during the Cold War. We've drifter apart ever since, though we could have drawn closer and had a democratic ally rather than inspire an anti-American backlash that became a fertile ground for theocratic authoritarian rule.

In Turkey, Following WW I, the Turkish War of Independence (1919–22), initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues in Anatolia, resulted in the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey in 1923, with Atatürk as its first president. Atatürk was dissolute as he was visionary, using required military service to enforce literacy and exposure to Western elements. This forceful hand pushed aside the mullahs and created a viable secular democracy of muslims that fought valiantly with America in Korea afterTurkey's entrance into World War II on the side of the Allies in February 1945 made it a charter member of the United Nations. U.S.-Turkey relationship has been rocky with Cyprus and the Cold War offering challenges. The friendliness of Turkey towards the United States has declined markedly over the past decade, primarily a result of the United States' action in the Iraq War in 2003. Still, as a Middle East democracy and strategic NATO member, it would seem natural for the two nations to find common ground.

The nations, the author observes, we do work most closely with: Saudi Arabia and Israel are problematic when looked at objectively. The Saudis are are an authoritarian monarchy with a poor human rights record, and Israel is a flashpoint itself while kicking off sparks with its occupation of Palestinian lands while it tries to schizophrenically strive for a Jewish democracy and a subjugated Arab population.

The other calls for the two state solution and fair land swaps for Palestine, suggests a concerted Western effort to get off Saudi oil, and rapprochement with out natural friends in Turkey and Iran.

While wide in scope, there is a concise clarity to the historical context here.

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Review: Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O'Neil
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As a quant in the trenches when formulae brought down the mortgage industry and nearly the global economy, the author has a lot of first-hand knowledge to bring to bear on this supported invective against impersonal maths making for depersonalized weapons against the little man, those lacking in opportunity through their hopes (diploma mills), financial insecurity (payday loans), careers (resume analyzing) and more. In showing how mathematical models can be improperly used she calls out for a human touch and broader view to using these WMD's. No mathematical knowledge required to read this book and grasp her message.

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Review: Unsinkable: The Full Story of the RMS Titanic

Unsinkable: The Full Story of the RMS Titanic by Daniel Allen Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this history that arced from the planning for the building of Titanic and her sister vessels Olympic and Gigantic (later Britannic) on to Titanic: The Exhibition which I travelled to Boston to see in the summer of 1998. This tragedy has taken on a mythic locus, in the tidal zone between the sunsetting of class privilege and the dawning of the now ubiquitous wireless technology. The frantic use (and abuse of wireless) adds tempo and pulse to this work, making it a nice double feature with Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. Since the work is so recent, while it may not have the persona charm of A Night To Remember And The Night Lives On, it does have the advantage of more hindsight, research and more recent scholarship. This allows us to get even onto The Californian idly drifting ten miles away and observing but not reacting to standard, all-white signal flares sent from the doomed vessel. There is a nice glossary of nautical terms and be sure to also read the appendices. One is a closer examination of the indefensible Capt. Lord of the pitiless Californian and more takes a dim view of White Star's unchivalrous Ismay while treating Capt. Smith of The Titanic like a PTSD victim. Personally, I think he unblemished record theretofore meant he had no experience with disaster or disaster averted when his passengers needed such experience the most.

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Review: Skin Shows: The Art Of Tattoo

Skin Shows: The Art Of Tattoo by Chris Wroblewski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is mostly beautiful, full-page, glossy photography of ink of various styles and techniques, some times in various states of completion. The text is limited to two things: 1) an introduction by the author summarizing the history of tattooing in America and praising the influence of Japanese art on the West Coast artisans for revitalizing the art, and 2) model and tattooist identifications in the final pages. The images include two pages for two Robert Williams.

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Review: The Bioneers: Declarations of Interdependence

The Bioneers: Declarations of Interdependence by Ken Ausubel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fascinating and diverse 90s collection of back-to-nature, save-the-planet essays. The pieces are in a consistent form: problem definition, relevant pioneer/scientist-activist, what you can do. The diversity comes from applied science like Donald A. Hammer's Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment to spiritual points of view like ethnobotanist Kathleen "Kat" Harrison meeting the plant spirits in dreams. One introduction that brings these ends of the gamut together is the water form explorations of Jennifer Greene.

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Review: The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ariely offers a kind of gonzo pop psychology that is enlightening, and entertaining. "Gonzo" because he interjects himself into the science when his life experiences drive questions to be answered and offer revealing anecdotes. Recovering from serious injuries and committing human foibles, Ariely seeks truth and is revealing in this personal work. He outlines the construction and implementation of experiments on either impoverished Indians or nearly impoverished university students to support that motivation is required by workers (duh) and bonuses decrease efficiency and do not incentivise (huh), etc. This becomes a framework to map the topography of irrationality in hums (and chimps, for that matter). Very interesting stuff. It seems weird at the end that Ariely underscores both the need of the scientific method and embracing irrationality which presents and unexplored contradiction.

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Review: Watch Me: A Memoir

Watch Me: A Memoir by Anjelica Huston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First off, is this not the only honest title for an actor's memoir?

Anjelica takes us from growing up Huston to edging carefully into filmwork and torn about her father's leverage. Along with the entrance to Hollywood comes relationships with Jack Nicholson and Ryan O'Neal. Jack is emotionally abusive and Ryan proves physically so. Why Anjelica seems to demand so little decency from her paramours is surprising and unexplored. Her father's tireless, principled, and hard-headed career gets full coverage and allows me to understand the portrayal in "White Hunter Black Heart" (1990). This thinly fictionalized account of the legendary movie director by Clint Eastwood is an interesting shadow of what Anjelica describes. She, of course, adds much detail to her many successful films, like difficult costuming in "The Addams Family" and < a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wit... Witches" as well as working with Wes Anderson and other directors and actors. She has a more settled and healthy relationship with her husband Bob Graham, the Mexican-American sculptor who created the 24-foot-long (7.3 m) arm with a fisted hand suspended by a 24-foot-high (7.3 m) pyramidal framework that is the Monument to Joe Louis. A full and fascinating life, frankly told and of interest to movie fans, for sure. Now, I need to get me a copy of Prizzi's Honor.

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Review: I Know I Am, But What Are You?

I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a quick, easy, enjoyable read narrated by Bee herself. It moves effortlessly from a a surprisingly dysfunctional childhood that could be the basis of a much darker memoir to the fits and starts of getting an acting career going in Canada, including meeting husband Jason Jones while on the road in a live-action Sailor Moon stage show based on the weird Japanese Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon live-action television series. The Daily Show is a present absence here, as are expected parts of her personal life.

Bee married to actor and fellow Daily Show cast member Jason Jones in 2001, in January 2006, she gave birth to Piper Bee-Jones. Bee returned to The Daily Show in March 2006 and on January 24, 2008, Bee announced a second pregnancy on air during a bit about the media's coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign. In 2008, their second child, Fletcher Bee-Jones, was born. Motherhood, marriage (beyond a couple of chapter-length anecdotes), and working with Jon Stewart do not get covered here. I am not disappointed about that and enjoyed this so much, I just hope she covers it in the next one - it can't be any worse than the stories of her parents’ humiliating sex talk (that even included lesbian sex after a family vacation spent watching women’s tennis) to her Wiccan mother’s attempt to dissuade her from Catholicism at an early age!

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Review: Off My Rocker: One Man's Tasty, Twisted, Star-Studded Quest for Everlasting Music

Off My Rocker: One Man's Tasty, Twisted, Star-Studded Quest for Everlasting Music by Kenny Weissberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Starting with Boulder scene around Firefall, etc. Weissberg enjoys as a fan, exults in music journalism and leading his band Kenny & the Kritix, and falls into freeform radio. This exciting and unpredictable format bookends the concert booker/promoter career that is the meet of the book, but made me wistful and nostalgic for my own past year on WXOU, Internet etc. with my own program Outsight Radio Hours. Kenny's recollection of booking Humphrey's San Diego concert venue is a revealing insider’s look at the concert industry with fascinating backstage interactions with various icons, including a Fats Domino livid when his requested limousine did not appear to drive him a distance of barely one block, extortion from Chuck Berry Style, an avuncular B.B. King, and Joan Baez of a distracted and stage-managed artistry. Kenny seems to hold ion the highest esteem an adored Bonnie Raitt and Roy Orbison. Good stuff here for any music fan.

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Review: Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an amazing three generation history in the context of the rise and fall of the Comanche empire around the Parker family massacred and from them kidnapped nine year old Cynthia Ann Parker. She eventually adopts to her Comanche band and weds Comanche chief Peta Nocona with whom she has children, including Quanah Parker. When she is "rescued", white society has to hold her prisoner against her frequent attempts to return "home" and to the family members her rescuers had not slain. Surviving Quanah Parker led his people in resistance, in raiding and on to the reservation, where he became a wealthy rancher and influential in Comanche and American society having become not only a Comanche chief, but a visionary founder of the Native American Church. A truly amazing multi-generational tale.

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Review: Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World

Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World by Catalina de Erauso
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A brief and fascinating account, via court ordered autobiography (One of the earliest known by a woman) of Catalina de Erauso. This early 17th Century Basque adventurer and free spirit escaped from a convent dressed as a man and went on to live as a New World soldier in the Spanish army, gambler, and mistakenly killed her brother in a duel. After her truth being discovered, she became famous in Spanish-speaking world. This very natural translation of her audacious escapades includes a helpful, context-setting foreword by Marjorie Garber that compares the transvestism and passing of adventurous women to tales of Shakespeare and other historical cases.

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Review: A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962

A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is said this long in print document on the Algerian struggle for independence has been a reference guide for Al Qaeda, Yasser Arafat, and the like. It is a tale of Islamist terrorism and a militant, Arab nationalism that defeated a technologically advanced Western power in an asymmetric battle with atrocities on both sides. The bombings, “green on blue” attacks, torture and terror does feel very current. This is enlightening and at least if not this document of history, at least this part of history should be more widely known and appreciated. I found particularly interesting the role of veterans on both sides and armaments of the First Indochina War figured in, along with Mao's> China.

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